In visits to Turner Field to hit in the batting cages this winter, golf outings with former teammates, and now trotting around Dodgertown in a brighter shade of blue, he looks and sounds like the same old Andruw.
The Braves face Jones and the Dodgers today in Vero Beach in the spring training opener.
“Being around those guys for 11 years, they’ve become like a family,” said Jones, who’ll keep his permanent home in Atlanta. “I see them every day, every year. My home is there. I don’t have to move, but after that, that’s it. It’s a business.”
On Oct. 2, then-Braves general manager John Schuerholz told Jones the team couldn’t meet salary expectations laid out by his agent Scott Boras months earlier, reportedly near $20 million per year.
“It felt weird, but I had a feeling about it already,” Jones said. “So I was strong enough. I’m not going to let my emotions get in the way.”
Jones said when the Braves were in Houston for the final series last year, Schuerholz told him to come see him after the season. He packed his locker before he went to Schuerholz’s office that Tuesday.
“I didn’t take it personally,” Jones said. “My dad told me this once: this is a business, and sometimes to keep yourself in the business you’ve got to go somewhere else. And that’s what happened.”
Following the market forces
The sting was certainly assuaged by the two-year, $36.2 million contract he signed with Los Angeles. Buoyed by Torii Hunter’s five-year, $90 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels ($18 million annually), Jones now has the fifth-highest average yearly salary in the majors.
“That’s what the market was going and I got it,” Jones said. “It could have been less with the Braves, could have been less with the other teams. It really wasn’t that big a deal. But it’s just tough when your free agent year you have an off year.”
Where Jones is not hesitant to share his disappointment is about his offensive struggles last year. Hitting a career-low .222 all but eliminated any chance he’d be back with the Braves.
It’s hard to argue with 26 home runs and 94 RBIs, but Jones knows that had he come through with runners in scoring position (.231), he might have had 130 RBIs. And what didn’t show up in the boxscore were the wild swings that nearly left him on his rump.
“I just wasn’t right,” he said. “I thought I was right and I wasn’t. Bad balance. Bad judgment. Bad approach. … I just didn’t produce the way I was supposed to. I don’t make excuses. Didn’t get the job done. Those years happen sometimes. You learn from it, and you move on. It was a bad time to struggle, but what am I going to say? You learn from that.”
Chipper Jones, a rare Braves player with a chance to finish his career in Atlanta, senses some disappointment.
“He wants to be here,” said Chipper, who played golf this winter with Andruw. “He misses it. He knows he’s going to miss it. We talked a little bit. He only signed a two-year deal. He knows the restraints we’re under monetarily. He knows that in two years he’s going to get an opportunity to come back if he so desires and wants to work with Atlanta.”
It’s probably not that simple, though. The Braves traded for Mark Kotsay as a one-year bridge to center field prospect Jordan Schafer.
Jones might have been that one-year bridge if the Braves had offered him salary arbitration. But the Braves, who didn’t want to risk Jones accepting and commanding some $16 million, didn’t offer.
Jones acknowledged he would have accepted arbitration.
“Yeah, sure,” Jones said. “Probably just to get another year to get myself ready [for free agency].”
Boras had said all along Jones wouldn’t take a one-year deal. The Braves weren’t going to offer him one. “We had already made a decision it was time to move on,” new Braves general manager Frank Wren said.
Greg Maddux surprised the Braves when he accepted arbitration in 2003 and got $14.75 million. He was gone without an offer the next year. When it was pointed out he and Maddux had that much in common, Jones got about as inflammatory as he would get.
“I don’t want to say much,” he said. “They’re always right. We’re the ones who are wrong. That’s the way it is.”
Promising to drop pounds
Jones gets a fresh start in L.A. He was one of the few veterans to volunteer to go to China for exhibition games against San Diego. He’s in a locker next to good friend and former Braves teammate Rafael Furcal.
He raised some eyebrows reporting to camp at 240 pounds. But he assured new manager Joe Torre he’ll lose it as the season progresses.
Jones said he doesn’t feel awkward toward his old team or its front office. He saw Schuerholz at Jeff Francoeur’s and Brian McCann’s weddings this winter.
“I understand their decision,” Jones said. “I have no problem with that. It could be different if they had a couple talks and stuff, but there was no talks; I think they had their plan already, what they wanted to do. I had to move on.”
Jones did ask if any Brave was wearing his old No. 25. No one is. The Braves won’t move on that quickly.
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